


Ruby Residue

by with_wit_and_perfect_timing



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Captain America (Comics), Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alpha Peggy, Angst with a Happy Ending, Artist Steve Rogers, Awesome Peggy Carter, BAMF Peggy Carter, Captain America: The First Avenger, Comfort/Angst, F/M, Feminist Steve Rogers, First Kiss, First Love, Fluff and Angst, Gentle Kissing, Hurt Steve Rogers, POV Peggy Carter, Past Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Protective Steve Rogers, Steve Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-11
Updated: 2017-04-11
Packaged: 2018-10-17 12:55:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10594443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/with_wit_and_perfect_timing/pseuds/with_wit_and_perfect_timing
Summary: Set in Captain America: The First Avenger, after Peggy finds Steve smooching up a storm with the seductive secretary.





	

            Agent Carter, out of breath and feeling dizzy, pressed her finger tips on the cold, metal desk. Her legs felt weak, and as she shifted her weight onto her arms and off of her feet, she felt her throat close up. She squeezed her eyes shut. _Don’t you dare cry,_ she told herself firmly. But she didn’t listen to the stricter side of herself, and her lips, already wet, trembled.

            The sight of Steve, still fresh in her mind, leaned against the body of the flirty receptionist, pressing his weight and lips on hers. She had him by the tie, pulling him closer. Her red-painted hands tangled in his dirty blonde hair, and his hands lightly placed on her waist. It wasn’t just a peck either, which is what bothered Peggy the most. Their eyes were closed, deep in the kiss, and even though she hated to admit it to herself, Steve didn’t like look he was planning on pulling away anytime soon.

            Peggy was proud of how she held herself together when she rounded the corner to see the two of them in their state, even though seeing Steve like that felt like a dagger to the heart. She put on her best poker face, with a hint of disgust, which is what she would normally show towards anyone swapping spit in a professional space.

            Her embarrassing snap with the gun was _not_ something she was proud of. She saw the shock on Howard’s face, followed by an impressed smirk, and she had to keep herself from smiling. Peggy wished that the outburst was more satisfying, but it made her feel worse. She never saw herself as the kind of woman who would throw her husband’s belongings out on the front lawn to burn, when she found out he was screwing around with other women.

            “ _Don’t let men see that they get to you,”_ her mother always told her back in England. The minute you do, they see you as their idea of a woman, not a Peggy Carter.

            As well as the fact that Steve was never hers. Oh, but how she _wanted_ him to be. When she had first met him, back when he was scrawny and picked on, she told herself – convinced herself – that she wasn’t a starry eyed floozy who fell for soldiers with hearts of gold. But as she spent more time with him, her fond grew exponentially. It wasn’t until she saw him kissing another woman that she realized she had fallen, and fallen hard.

            _This is what you deserve, this pain,_ she scolded herself, _falling for a man in your field of work._ After the incident with the shield, Peggy fled to a vacant file room, making sure no one was following her. The small room, with four rows of file shelves, much like a library, smelled like old ink and paper.

            Peggy stood with her back pressed to the file shelf, and her hands crossed over her chest. Desperate tears dribbled down her cheek and neck. _How could you do that? How could you go and fall for the Impossible Man?_ She was so stupidly in love with him. How could she be so stupid?

            Her ear caught the sound of the old metal door opening, and her spine snapped straight up. Faster than light, Peggy wiped her tears, regulated her heart beat, and began to rifle through old file reports as a means to seem natural. A dark feeling of dread settled upon her as the footsteps neared, moments away from discovering her whereabouts.

            “Peggy?”

            Good Lord, it was him.

            Steve walked closer to her awkwardly. She glanced at him as a sign of acknowledgment, and then looked back at him with a harder stare. “Yes?” she pressed with a cocked eyebrow.

            He looked like a deer in headlights, as if he expected her to fall to pieces. Peggy placed the file down firmly. “Is there something I can help you with, Captain Rogers?” she said.

            “Is…” Steve kept his eyes on her. “Is everything…okay?”

            “Why would it not be?” she inquired. Damn it, her voice cracked.

            “Peg –”

            “Actually,” she said, taking a confident step forward. “It’s Agent Carter.”

            He flinched. Good.

            “Agent Carter, we need to talk.”

            “I haven’t the slightest idea why.”

            She could see Steve was starting to get frustrated. “ _Agent Carter,”_ he said, taking a step closer. They were about five feet away now. “This room is full of old, closed cases.”

            Peggy kicked herself for choosing this particular room.

            “There’s nothing to say.”

            “Well, then let me talk.”

            Peggy sighed and stifled an eye roll. “I’m waiting.”

            Steve stood at attention, his hands behind his back. “I didn’t…” he fumbled. “I had n-nothing to do with…”

            “Honestly, Rogers, if you can’t find the proper use of vocabulary to explain your actions, there’s no reason why I should be standing here listening,” she snapped.

            “I know,” he insisted. “Peggy-”

            “Agent Carter.”  
            “Agent _Carter,_ that?” He jabbed a thumb in the direction of the office he was found smooching in. “That? Back there? It wasn’t me.”

            Heat flamed around Peggy’s face. “And I suppose it was your clone?” She turned away. “Science might be evolving, but we’re not that far.”

            “God, _no._ I meant, I didn’t kiss her.”

            “Then who did?” This was getting ridiculous.

            “I’m saying, she didn’t…I didn’t make the first move. She grabbed me by the tie.”  
            Peggy clenched her jaw, “It didn’t look like you opposed.”

            Steve swallowed hard, his features suddenly becoming angry. “So what if I didn’t? Why do you have a problem with it?”

            The words surprised them both, and stung. Instant regret flashed across Steve’s face. But he said it.

            “Well you ought to know now, Captain,” she choked, feeling the tears well up in her eyes, and trying her absolute best to sound harsh.

            Steve took a cautious step forward. “Tell me.”

            And for the first time during their conversation, Peggy looked into his eyes. Oh, why did they have to be so honest and blue?

            “I thought…” she whispered, pausing, her breath suddenly getting caught in her throat.

            Another step. Three feet away from that blonde face. “What did you think?” A voice, low and deep.

            Peggy took a shuddery breath. “I thought you would be different.”

            “From what, Peg?”

            She didn’t correct him this time. “From _them;_ the other sleazy men who screw around with women who mean nothing to them.”

            “God, you know I’m not like that.”

            “And how do I know? I have a solid piece of evidence still clear in my mind.”

            A gentle hand on her arm, causing her skin to prickle. “Because…you know me…better than I know myself, ma’am.”

            “I thought I did,” she whispered coldly, her bottom lip trembling. “But now I’m not so sure.”

            “Peggy, I would…I would _never_ do that…to you.”

            She looked at him with pulled in brows. “To me?”

            “You gotta know I’m mad for you, ma’am.”

            “You have an awfully ridiculous way of showing it.”

            “I can change that.”

            Steve pulled her closer, his lips merely inches from hers.

            _Don’t give in, Peggy. He’s just like all the rest. How many times are you going to let your heart be broken by men in the war? How many times are you going to break before you learn your lesson?_

No. _No._

            Peggy was never the woman to need a man. She had always been dependent on herself, ever since she was a little girl. Her brother, Michael, encouraged it, to stand up for herself. Her mother was always terrified for Peggy, feared that her hopes and dreams would be dashed on the jagged rocks of misogyny.

            No, Peggy never in her life _needed_ a man. But oh, how she _wanted one. This one._

            Steve leaned closer, his face hovering over hers. She was caught in his tight embrace. He pressed his lips on hers, and for a moment she complied.

            But her gut told her to pull away. And she always trusted to her instincts.

            Steve pursed his lips, turning bright red. “I-I’m sorry, I thought -”

            She shushed him quickly, setting her heart beat and flushed face to normal tone. “No, I just – ” She didn’t know what to say, how to make him understand how she felt.

            “Steve,” She set her voice to be firm, but kind, “You cannot just…kiss me, and make it all better.”

            Steve rubbed the back of his neck anxiously, “I’m sorry, I should have resisted.”

            A quick flame flickered across Peggy’s cheeks. “Like you should have with the secretary?”

            Steve sucked in a rushed breath, calculating a response in his thick skull, by the looks of it. “The reason…” He spoke slowly and enunciated each word; not as much to help her understand, but to pace himself so he ceases slipping up his words. “The reason I didn’t react the way I _should_ have, is because I’m not… _use_ to dames coming up to me and laying one on me. I didn’t know what to do, let alone what was happening. Shoving her away would be rude.”

            Peggy scoffed; partly at Steve for being such a incompetent gentleman and not having the confidence to reject a kiss, and partly at herself for being attracted to that side of him.

            Steve stepped towards her with a hopeless look on his face. “You’ve got to believe me, Agent Carter…I wouldn’t have just stood there if I knew what was going to happen. I’m not that kind of guy.”

            Peggy bristled, “So, if she had told you she would have, as you said “laid one on you”, you wouldn’t have reacted like that?”

            “No. No, of course not.”

            His crystal eyes were earnest, as they always were. She was sure Steve had never told a single lie in his entire life without falling to bloody bits only minutes after. Why was her infatuation so strong? She had been in love before, she remembered clearly, or what she thought love was supposed to be like. Head over heels, she would have described it, absolutely smitten. She was obsessed with the man she had fallen for, but that was simply not the man she was engaged to. After Michael died, she set her priorities straight, and soon, her soon-to-be husband began to matter less and less, until she finally realized being wed and becoming a housewife was not the future Michael would have wanted her to have.

            Steve was different. There were no red flags disguised by rose-colored goggles, there was no deceit, or skewed judgment with Steve.  He looked at her in a way that made didn’t make her heartbeat quicken, but steady. She felt comfortable around him, like he was familiar, like he was home.  She felt as though she could talk to him about anything and everything, and he would still look at her like he always did – as if she was the only bloody person in the room. That’s when Peggy decides.

            “And why…” Peggy moved closer to him, to where her fingers graze his suit, his necktie, his badges, “Why is that?”

            Agent Carter had a set goal, an idea that she got as soon as she pulled away from the intended kiss. She wouldn’t let Steve kiss her, no way in Hell. No, Steve would not get the privilege to make the first move on Margaret Elizabeth Carter. But Margaret Elizabeth Carter will make the bloody first move on Steven Grant Rogers.

            Steve stumbled on his words, and then quieted as Peggy locked eyes with him, brown on blue.  They both fell into a hushed silence, with nothing but the suffocating tension that Peggy could not wait to break.

            In one swift movement, Peggy brought Steve down by the fabric of his uniform jacket – she makes sure not to bring him down by his tie, like the blasted secretary – and pulled him to her crimson lips. The world breathed a relieved sigh as Margaret Elizabeth Carter kissed Steven Grant Rogers, right on the lips.

            Steve did not react the way he did with the secretary, with arms stiff and eyebrows shot up. Hell, he could hardly keep his mouth steady from the grin that threatened to ruin their moment. He brought her in closer at the waist, enveloping her in an embrace, as she kept her grip on his shirt.

            The kiss was everything and nothing Peggy had imagined. She expected fireworks, and explosive sensuality (not that she had imagined the kiss a thousand times before, what a ridiculous thought). But instead, she was met with tender passion, like a couple kissing on their wedding day. Soft, and sweet, and filled to the brim with familiarity and wholesomeness.

            Before Peggy became overwhelmed with the swelling feeling of joy in her chest, she broke the kiss off with a smirk, causing Steve to look dazed and wanting more.

            “Good day, Captain Rogers,” she said with her mouth inches away from his.

            And then Peggy Carter turned and walked right out of the file room, leaving the bewildered blonde with nothing but ruby residue and fondled frocks, and trying desperately to disguise the unmistakable skip in her step. 

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, this is my first time writing from Peggy Carter POV, and let me tell you, it is empowering. I hope I did her justice. 
> 
> Comments are encouraged, but no required (I just love hearing from people who read my quirky works)


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